Ada Cambridge, who would become one of colonial Australia's most prolific and quietly subversive literary voices, was born on 21 November 1844 at St Germans, Norfolk, England. She was the second child of Thomasine and Henry Cambridge, a gentleman farmer of comfortable means. The Norfolk countryside, with its flat, expansive skies and ancient, weathered churches, would seep into her imagination and later resurface in…
“Careful, delicate, faithful work, no matter on what article expended, was the note of excellence, and the longer I live the more I respect and love it.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
On the eastern coast of Scotland, where the North Sea meets the fertile lands of Angus, stands the House of Dun—a Georgian mansion that witnessed the birth of one of Scotland's most distinctive literary voices. It was here, on 1 September 1863, that Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine entered the world, destined to become the poet and novelist who would capture the very essence of Scottish rural life in ver…
“It will never leave me while I live. He is so near me often …”
Neighbourhood:
Folk & Ballad Poets, Scottish Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Tenderness
